Attention Kmart shoppers, it’s closing time
Turn out the (blue) light, the party’s over
When I was in high school, my classmates and I used to make jokes about Kmart.
What does the parakeet from the pet department at Kmart say?
Cheap. Cheap. Cheap. Cheap.
(Forgive me., but that was one of the funnier ones.)
We ridiculed that store without mercy. We considered it beneath our dignity to darken the doors there. We were embarrassed if someone ever noticed us shopping for school supplies at Kmart with our moms.
So you can imagine my chagrin when I found myself looking for a job the summer before I left for college, and the nice lady at the employment office in Sandy Springs ran her finger down the new listings and said:
“Here’s an opening for a stock boy at Kmart.’’
I gulped, swallowed my pride and steered my 1973 Mercury Capri up Roswell Road to apply for a job at Kmart Store No. 4138. It was 2.6 miles from my house.
They hired me on the spot. I started the next day. My employee badge was No. 198. I don’t know how I remember that, but I do.
It turned out to be more than placeholder employment before I departed for college. I worked there for the next three summers. And they brought me back every Christmas break to help out part time with the holiday rush.
In many ways, Kmart changed my life. I developed a strong set of retail working skills. Although I never was drafted to go to war, I spent many summers with a price gun in my hand.
And who can forget the blue-light specials? We would roll those carts into the aisles with a whirling police blue light and slap 55 percent off stickers on everything from pillowcases to Crest toothpaste.